The star of Baylissgate the Movie is no more. We've just heard that Assistant General Secretary Les Bayliss, who came a poor third in the General Secretary election, has left. Saving to the union: £133K a year. Not only that, the tiny but tight Simpson/Bayliss Supporters Club that called itself Workers Uniting Group (WUG) is to be disbanded. Bayliss's website is already gone.

WUG apparently are to merge themselves into the small United Left Group and, as one source called it "return to being splitters and treacherous twats, no change there." They are having their closing down celebrations this evening at the official leaving do of Derek Simpson, who technically leaves office 31/12/10.

Apparently Richard O’Brien, the union's head of communications who ran the Bayliss campaign resigned as soon as the result was announced. He'll be remembered for Bayliss's distinctive 'death by email' approach which seemed to consist of spamming every member the union had email addresses for.

34 comments:

heard that davisons/simpsons, then baylises scottish cheerleader and sycaphant agnas tolmy is again repositioning herself to make sure she retains her seat on the nec. that should make sure that she hangs onto her gravy train ticket on all the freebies and global tours?

the BL should not entertain davisons WUG as they are just a bunch of wreckers and backbiters who hijacked and destroyed the former gazette from within. they are bankrupt of principles except serving their own ends.....bring on the animal farm.

bayliss and O'Brien leaving is not unexpected but I do not believe that there will be a cull, that is not Len's way.Some in the WUG would be Ok for the UL and also those who backed Jerry should join with the UL.By the way the UL has an active broad membership and it is only the newsgroup which has the 193 members.Rather than throwing bricks in the wilderness at least give the UL a try and if there are disagreements then try and resolve them

I do not speak for the UL but I disagree with the election of ALL officers. A standard Regional officer can be asked/required to work anywhere and in any industry at the absolute discretion of the EC. Although this power is not used frivously it does allow for flexibility of servicing and can cope with retirement resignation and severance. If there was an election for all officers then there would need to be rigid constituencies and theferore the structure of the union would be predicated by the officer structure, which in turn would lend too much authority bto the elected officer and would be needelessly rigid. I can understand the election of set constituencies RS, NO and Excecutive officers but I believe "election of officers" is a mantra which ignores the real issues of officer accountability and how that can be excersised.Again I state that this is a personal view

Election of officers is so that the remit comes from the rank & file members, not the remit coming from the senior officers above,who appointed them. The rank & file members are male,female,young,old,black,white,homosexual,lesbian,etc,etc.So what evidence do you have that it will lead to corruption, only benefit elderly white males.Surely also it cannot be in the interests of members if as stated above standard regional officers can be moved around anywhere/any industry at a drop of a hat, thats how it is coming across to me. One month in buses, next month NHS,next banking, next construction, how regularly does the EC do this to regional officers & on what scale of numbers?Why don't we apply the theory of the non-election of union officers, say to MP's & governments, the powers that be know best they don't want ordinary people voting in their representatives, we'll appoint them for you, they know best you know.Finally I believe most officers do a first class, but if someone doesn't, the members will be able to remove them & replace them. Whats wrong with that, sounds like democracy in action to me.

Absolutely agree with the previous comments. The membership did not vote to have elected officers. I just wonder how would you go about doing it?. Sack all the officers and then reinstate on new contracts with less favourable terms?. Have a two tier system for new officers?.Is this what we fight against in our members workplaces everyday. Jerry you have stood twice for GS and both times come a poor second the membership do not want your kind of union what more do they have to say before it sinks in?.Start working for the good of the membership instead of for your own EGO.

I thought about the last comment and think to prove how left we are we should go much further. The organisers, researchers, cleaners, secretaries and caretakers who work at Unite should also be elected.

Lets have a public burning of their permanent employment contracts and tear up their pensions and instead we could have a beauty contest every month where the employees tout their hard work and commitment to the movement and a small band of real left militant members can decide if they have a job or not.

We should have zero hour contracts, minimum wage, no pensions and immediate recall so that the peoples servants be put before a workers committee and any misdemeanors or crimes against the workers can be dealt with.

This will sort out the wheat from the chaff and prove who really are of the left. We must demand that those who work for Unite give their blood for the movement and the revolution and sacrifice everything.

We must not allow for such concepts such as stable employment and a living wage to create a petite bourgeois mind set amongst the Unite employees.

Election of officers is so narrow, right wing and reactionary, to be really left elect all Unite employees now!

DearUnite i am not rambling on about anything and you deleted two of my posts which were neither petty, abusive or personal.

I voted for Mr Hicks because i believe in militant socialist workers democractic union and the election of all Unite employees, with all unite workers on the minimum levels that real workers recieve and work under the conditions real workers face.

You are censoring democracy and debate which is a hallmark of the right and has no place on the left.

Post my previous posts and lets have the real debate and let the workers decide and not some faceless bureaucrat.

this is just crap we haven't deleted a post for ages and we've only deleted UL's personal attacks. If you doubt that just re-post it. Are you sure you haven't posted it on another story - each story has its own comments.

If we do not have a democratic and accountable lay member structure - any my belief is that we currently don't - then election of officials is pointless. It seems that every time there is a merger, committees get smaller and meet less frequently, and become mere talking shops. What is more important, is that the union has competent officers who act according to union policy (decided and enforced by Conference, the EC, and the various sub- and regional committees) and not officers who act on their own or their manager's views.

Another issue, if we did have elected officers, would be to do with electioneering. In a sector dominated by large firms, why should officers devote their time to workplaces based in an industrial park or under a railway arch, when they can get enough votes from the large firms that have recognition agreements? Yet, the members in the small firms are often most in need of our union's help.

Let's strengthen the lay structure first, and then have the debate on electing officers.

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heard that about baylis as well.That was for coming 3rd behind lennie and a lay member in Jerry. Despite having a data base, the scum (sun) and press adverts. Still need an investigation into where the money came from for the high costs involved.

how much did o'brien get?

will woodly get a payoff if he goes early?

Its only our members hard earned money who are facing record job losses, short time and wage cuts

I'll be putting in an inspection of books request shortly about Bayliss's payoff, let me know what questions to ask. My friend Jim Mortimer established years ago that we can find out the payoffs, eventually see Chowcat payoff

Then it took 4 years, should be in time for the next election. The amount paid was £1/2 million and that was back in 1999.

News Flash...Gravy train to continue...Woodley to stay on for another 12 months...what salary? Does anyone know? Surplus national officers, oh yeah pull the other one, in true Royal Family style..."my arse"

Tam mitchell and agnes tolmie were cheer leaders for simpson ,mitchell is convenor from rolls royce east kilbride ,his own members in the section he worked in voted him out in 2008 and then he went grovelling to his members ,all he done was go to union conferences and then sold his workforce down the pan with compulsory redundancies not even a single fight but by this time he had full back up from management ,there was even a good shop steward scaked during a witch hunt and he kept his job,there was never a more slimey little creep like him around kidding on he was a leftwinger ,the true definition of a union bureacrat was tam mitchell lower than a grass hoper.